Odisha Crime Branch To Grill LeT Handler Habibur Rahman In Delhi

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Police will interrogate Habibur Rahman, one of the handlers of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Shaikh Abdul Naeem alias Nomi and a native of Kendrapara district, in New Delhi.

Informing this to the media here on Wednesday, Crime Branch ADG Santosh Upadhyay said a Special Task Force (STF) team led by DIG Himanshu Lal will leave for New Delhi very soon to interrogate Rahman with the permission of the National Investigation Team (NIA).

“The team will interrogate Rahman on his Odisha link and his modus operandi on terror activities in the state. It will also seek details on how many times he had accompanied the Pakistan-based (LeT) terrorist Shaikh Abdul Naeem to Odisha,” he added.

Rahman was arrested by the NIA in New Delhi on August 6 after being deported from Saudi Arabia.

According to the NIA, Naeem was arrested in 2007 while trying to infiltrate two Pakistani and one Kashmiri terrorist into India through Bangladesh.

However, he escaped from custody while he being taken for court attendance to Maharashtra from Kolkata in August 2014. After his escape, he had joined the LeT on the directions of his handlers based in Pakistan and in Saudi Arabia.

Naeem, who was rearrested by NIA in November 2017, has been charge-sheeted along with 10 other co-accused including Rahman.

Naeem was instructed by the Pakistan-based LeT terrorist Amjad alias Rehan to identify the locations where terrorist attacks could be carried out. To accomplish the task, he had visited different states including Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh with fake identities.

To carry out the terror operation, Habibur had arranged hideouts and funds for Naeem on different occasions, the NIA sources said.

In-charge Director General of Police (DGP) and twin city Police Commissioner Satyajit Mohanty on Tuesday had told the media that the Odisha Police was ready to provide all assistance to the NIA in its investigation.